


|KLANCE| Our New World

by Lumonel



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Blood and Gore, Bottom Lance (Voltron), Depressed Lance (Voltron), Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gore, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Good Boyfriend, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Major Character Injury, Minor Character Death, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Smut, Top Keith (Voltron), Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 10:57:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16217600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumonel/pseuds/Lumonel





	1. Chapter 1

     Lance walked alone down the long deserted road, adjusting the straps on his backpack. It was awfully hot out, and Lance was so damn tired of walking. He hadn't slept in three whole days, and hadn't eaten in about a day and a half, since he had no food left anymore. It had been about 34 days since the whole apocalypse started. At least, that had been how long it had been since the disease spread into his city. The apocalypse had started sooner than that.

     The only reason why Lance knew how long it had been since the whole thing started, was because he kept track of the days in his journal. Thinking about his journal, Lance stops walking to pull off his backpack to grab his small, brown and faded journal, along with a black pen he kept in his back jean pocket. He put his bag back on, and began to write as he continued walking down the cracked and empty road.

    _"Day 34 - Afternoon_  
_No sign of anyone in the past few days, except for the occasional zombie that comes my way. The last people that I had seen had pretty much taken everything from me, and I really hope the next people I come across aren't as cruel. Sucks for them though, since I didn't really have much on me anyways. But now I have no food, and barely any ammo for my gun anymore. And to top it all off, I haven't slept or ate anything in the past few days, and it's really starting to affect me. I'm not able to focus that well, and it almost got me killed yesterday. I swear that zombie hadn't been there before._

_But what should I even call those things? They're obviously zombies, but I feel like I need to give them a name that isn't 'zombie,' because then it sounds really..dumb? I don't know. But, god, I need to find some place to eat and rest for a bit. I really need it._

_I wish my older brother Marco was here. He'd cheer me up and convince me that I'm going to be alright. I really miss everybody. I wonder where my family is right now. I really need to find them. I know they're alive, they gotta be out there somewhere."_

     Lance put his journal away and kept walking in complete silence. He looked to his left, seeing a small gas station in the distance. If he squinted hard enough, he could see that the windows were shattered, and the door was practically off of its hinges. It was probably already raided, but his hunger was only continuing to grow, so it was worth a shot. Lance walked for another minute, picking up his pace.

     Once he had finally reached the gas station, he entered it slowly, holding his gun at his side in case there was anybody - or anything - in there. He had found at an already raided gun shop a few miles back down the road. It was the only gun there that actually had bullets, so he had taken it. 

 He didn't know too much about guns, but his dad had taught a fair amount of stuff to him when he was younger, in his preteens. He remembered that his dad would sometimes take him out to the woods on weekends to go hunting. Though Lance never had the guts to actually shoot any animals, he had a good time firing at targets that they would set up.

     Lance hadn't seen anybody inside the gas station, so he began to relax a bit. He took his hand off of his gun, but he still kept his guard up as he began searching for literally anything for him to eat. Lance looked down an aisle to his right, seeing a few small candy bars.

     " _Food_!" Lance gasped, running over. He pulled his backpack off and stuffed two of the candy bars in his backpack. He quickly stuffed the third one in his mouth after taking off the wrapper, and throwing the wrapper in the garbage can. Even if it was the end of the world, Lance wasn't about to start littering. It was so good to finally eat some food after what felt like forever.

     He searched for a few minutes, going down most of the aisles and finding absolutely nothing. 'Maybe I should just leave. It seems this store is empty..' Lance thought as he went down yet another empty aisle. 

     Lance wasn't prepared for what had happened next. He felt a hand grab his shoulder, whipping Lance around, and he came face to face with another man. They had a knife held high above their head, ready to bring it down on Lance's skull and kill him. Though the man hesitated.

     Lance's eyes widened and he began to scream when he had seen the man behind him with his knife raised. He quickly pushed him away in fear. The boy fell from how hard Lance had pushed him, and his knife that he held fell out of his hand. Lance tried to flight instead of fight, and ended up slipping on some broken glass on the floor, falling onto the ground as well.

     Lance used his feet to push himself away from the other boy until his back had hit the wall. It then occurred to him that he had his gun, which he had placed in the waistband of his pants. Lance pulled it out, and shakily pointed it at the boy. "Stay _away_ from me! I'll shoot!" He yelled.

     He didn't know if that was entirely true, since Lance could never kill a person. But the boy didn't know that. His heart was beating out of his chest, and his gun was shaking in his hands. He kept his finger on the trigger, never taking his eyes off the boy. 

     The boy's eyes widened when he seen the clearly frantic Lance hold up his gun. He held his hand out, as if to tell him to stop. "No don't shoot!" He said not knowing what Lance was capable of when in a situation like this. 

     The boy held a finger to his lips to tell him to keep quiet. "You shouldn't waste your bullets, you'll only attract unwanted attention," he warned and very slowly got up his feet. He held his hands up to show he had no weapons on him. "I won't hurt you, I just thought you were one of those _things_." He said, explaining the misunderstanding. 

     Lance calmed his breathing a bit. He was still shaking, and was afraid to get up or make any sudden movements. But now that Lance had calmed down a bit, he was able to focus on what the boy looked like. He was around his age, maybe a few years older, and had unruly black hair that fell in front of his face. He wore black pants and and a black shirt, and in this heat, it wasn't the best choice of clothing. 

      He dropped the gun from his hand to show to him that he had no intention of trying to kill him. "Th- thank God...I- I thought you were going to k- kill me.." Lance stuttered. "I'm sorry about almost shooting you.." He apologized.

     The boy studied him closely and knew that even if the other boy wanted, he would have a hard time pulling the trigger on another human. "It's fine." He said. The raven-haired boy then began to walk down the aisles, just leaving Lance on the floor and not even offering to help him up.

    _'Rude much?'_ Lance thought. He got up, using the wall he was sitting up against to help himself stand up. He picked his gun up off of the ground, tucking it back in the waistband of his pants.

     After about a minute of silence, the boy spoke. "Do you have a name or do I have to make one up for you?" He asked, searching the aisles. Lance thought about telling him that he had already looked in the aisles, and that he found nothing, but Lance decided not to tell him.

     "Um, Lance," He responded quietly. "..Lance McClain." He made sure to say it a little louder the second time, so that he would hear him. Lance slowly followed behind the boy as he began searching the store for things.

     "Cool. Nice name." he replied plainly. The boy picked up the hunting knife he had used to almost kill Lance with, and placed it back in its holster. "I haven't seen a living person since this all started. Probably one of the reasons why I thought you were one of the living dead, sorry about that," he apologized. He found a bottle of water in an aisle that Lance hadn't looked in yet, and added it to his bag. The raven-haired boy looked out the window to make sure the undead hadn't heard the ruckus Lance had made a little earlier.  

     "I didn't catch your name." Lance said, waiting in anticipation. If Lance told him his name, the boy should do the same.

     "I didn't throw it." He said, looking out the window, completely ignoring Lance.

     Lance crossed his arms. " _Ha ha, very funny._ " he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "What's your name?" He asked again.

     "Keith Kogane," he replied plainly.

     "What kind of person has the name Keith anymore in this generation?"

     Keith didn't respond.

     "Not much of a talker, eh?" 

     Again, Keith didn't respond.

     Lance was frustrated that Keith was ignoring him, but he tried not to let it show.

     " _Well_ _anyways_ , don't be sorry. I probably would have made the same mistake if I was you." Lance told him as he roamed down a different aisle that was in the very back of the store, spotting a box labelled 'canned food.'

     He ran towards it, looking inside, but let out a disappointed sigh when he found there was nothing inside. Lance's stomach growled. He was longing for an actual meal or seriously anything that wasn't in a wrapper. Lance pulled his backpack off and grabbed another candy bar. It had only been like 10 minutes since he found them, and he had already ate two of them. 

     Lance looked to his right, spotting a bathroom. _'Cool. Maybe there's some running water in there.'_ Lance thought. He went to go investigate it, hoping that there may be some clean water in there. The door was closed, so Lance grabbed the knob and opened it. Though as soon as he did, the door flung open all the way and out came a zombie. Lance didn't react quickly enough, and the undead being tackled Lance down to the ground. Lance screamed as loud as he could, and he fought to keep the zombie away from him.

     " _AAHH_! _Keith_!!" Lance screamed.  

     Keith heard him, and ran down towards the source of the scream as quick as he could. His eyes widened as he seen Lance on the ground, trying to wrestle the zombie off of himself, but was having a very hard time doing so. Keith ran over, unsheathing his knife. Keith kicked the zombie off of Lance. Once Lance was free, Lance had gotten up and run away until he was sure that he was far enough away from the dead being.

     As the zombie was getting up, Keith grabbed it by the shirt, pulling it up quickly and sinking his blade into its skull. The zombie fell to the ground, unmoving, signalling to Keith and Lance that the zombie was actually dead dead.

     Keith walked over to Lance, wiping the blood from his knife on his pants. "You okay? You didn't get bit right?"

     I'm okay...I'm not bit..." Lance assured him, his legs shaking like crazy. "Thank you, Keith. I would have died if you weren't here." Lance genuinely smiled at him.

     Lance walked into the now unoccupied bathroom, looking at the grimy, bloody walls. He went to the sink, twisting the handle of the tap. It squeaked loudly as Lance turned it, but nothing came out. "Great. No water." Lance ran his fingers through his short-ish hair. He definitely needed a haircut, but he knew that wouldn't be happening anytime soon with the whole 'end of the world' thing.

     He had dark bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. He looked like a mess. He hadn't slept, ate, or drank in a while. He probably smelled really bad too. Lance looked at Keith but didn't say anything. He just gave him a really sad look, as if tears were about to start spilling from his eyes.

     Keith's brows knit together and a small frown formed on his face from seeing how sad Lance looked. He pulled his bag off and took the bottle of water he had found, and handed it to Lance. It was the least he could do. "There's got to be water somewhere." he said to reassure him.

     Lance gratefully took the water bottle from Keith and drank a little over half in one chug. He was still thirsty, but knew he should save the rest for later.

     Keith walked out of the bathroom and made his way over to the front counter where the cash register was. He went behind the desk, finding a map. He laid it out on the counter, looking it over intensly. He was trying to figure out where they were exactly.

     Lance followed Keith out of the restroom towards the front counter. "What are you doing?" He asked.

     "What does it _look_ like I'm doing?" Keith furrowed his brows, not even looking up at Lance when he asked.

     Lance frowned slightly and crossed his arms, looking down at the map with Keith. He was pretty sure they were just outside Arus

     Keith finally looked up at him after a long few minutes of silence. ' _This boy is so scared, and practically defenseless..I don't know if I should just leave him on his own.'_ Keith thought, knitting his eyebrows together as he began to think.

     "Hey, why don't we just stick together awhile, it's dangerous to be on your own." Keith gave him a friendly smile, even though on the inside he was starting to regret his decisions of asking Lance to come with him, since he was way too obstreperous. Though Lance could be of some use to him if they were to ever get in a tight situation...

     Lance's face lit up, and a smile stretched across his face. " _Yes! Please_ take me with you, I won't be able to survive this on my own!" Lance then realized he probably sounded desperate, so he rephrased it. "Uh, I mean-- Yeah sure, _whatever_. I would have enjoyed being on my own, but if you insist."

    Keith chuckled lightly. "Well then, let's start moving."


	2. Chapter 2

_Day 34 - Afternoon_

_Something unexpected happened. After finding my way to an abandoned gas station, I met a guy. He's cute too. He almost killed me, but that was only cuz' he thought I was a zombie. Could that count as an insult? Whatever. Anyways, Keith (the cute guy) is looking at some map right now to figure out where we are exactly, so I have some time to write this. Oh, I think he's got something. I'll just end this entry here._

     Keith sighed as he looked down at the map in his hands, still trying to make a little sense of where they were exactly. The two boys were still outside of the gas station, and Lance was standing at least three feet away from Keith, fidgeting with his backpack straps. He didn't want to get in Keith's way, because he looked like he was focusing, and Keith seemed like the type to snap at somebody for annoying them while they were trying to do something.

     "Hey, uh, I think that by judging where the sun is at now, I'd say we have about three hours of daylight left. We could walk a few miles back down the road, where there's a few empty houses that I passed by, or we could keep going and see where this road takes us." Lance suggested. "Though the houses back there looked pretty beaten up. . . so maybe it isn't the best idea to go back."

     Keith nodded as he listened to Lance, whilst looking at the map. "If we head right, there's a town I'd say about fifteen miles down. There'll be more zombies there, but there is also the chance of food, and a place to sleep." He said and looked over at Lance. "It might take awhile to get there, but it could be our best option for now. Who knows, maybe we'll find a working vehicle on the way." He said, trying to sound somewhat hopeful.

     Lance smiled at the thought of actually getting a decent sleep and meal, and maybe even getting a vehicle. "That sounds like a good plan. But do you think we'll be able to get there before sundown?" He asked. "I just don't think it'd be safe to be walking past dark, since it'd be a lot harder to see the dead."Lance was looking around from where they were standing, noticing two zombies slowly making their way towards them.

     "Damn, I think you attracted some attention with that girly scream of yours back in the gas station. We should get out of here before more come." 

     "Girly?! Excuse me?!" Lance gave him an offended look, but Keith just chuckled.

     "I'm joking. It was only a little girly. But anyways, let's get out of here." Keith began walking down the road with a smirk on his face.

     Lance just stared at him in disbelief. He then let out an exasperated sigh and started following him.

      Keith looked at Lance once he had caught up. "Maybe we can go back to those houses you mentioned and tomorrow we can start to head to that town in the morning. It might take an extra mile or so to get to the town, but we'll be safe for tonight, at least." He shrugged, looking ahead. "Did you already look inside the buildings for food?" He asked hoping they maybe had a chance to find something in there for food. 

     Lance shook his head. "No, I didn't. I was alone, and was afraid I'd end up running into a zombie in the house, and the only weapon I have is my gun, and using that would just attract more zombies." Lance was aware of the two zombies that were still following them, but mostly just ignored them since he didn't have a silent weapon to kill them. He assumed Keith would take care of it if they got any closer. 

     Keith nodded, "Yeah I can see how that would be a problem." Keith crossed his arms as he walked. ' _Well at least the dude isn't a total idiot. He knows not to get himself into a bad situation.'_  Keith thought to himself. 

     Things went silent between the two. The only sound that was heard was the sound of the two slow zombies growling behind them. Finally, it had annoyed Keith enough. "Just shut up already." He mumbled as he unsheathed his blade from the sheath on his thigh. He stuck it in one of the zombie's skull, and then swiftly did the same to the second one. He gagged slightly at the putrid smell and slid the knife back in its sheath. 

     Lance watched him with great intensity. Lance knew that he wasn't going to make it out of this apocalypse alive, since he would always hesitate to kill a zombie. He knew that being so hesitant, and not being able to adapt to this new life was going to get him killed one day. He also knew he couldn't stay with Keith forever. Lance was a dead weight to him, and knew as soon as Keith got the chance, he would ditch him. He didn't know why Keith was still keeping him around. He wasn't useful.

     Keith sighed. The heat was killing him. He pulled his hair back, since it was starting to stick to his neck. It was getting longer than he normally liked it, and his bangs were constantly in his eyes. He pulled an elastic band off of his wrist just to put his hair up enough that it wouldn't bother him. He didn't think Lance would want to stay with him long, since he assumed that he probably had a family he would want to find, and that would leave Keith on his own again. 

     Keith shifted his thoughts to how jumpy and unsure Lance was each time he was attacked. Those weren't good traits to have in a time like this, where there were zombies roaming everywhere. Lance needed to get faster reflexes, and he needed to know how to fend for himself. 

     "Hey Lance?" Keith looked over at him. 

     "Yeah? What's up?" He responded, making eye contact with him. 

     "So, you see that zombie over there that's walking diagonal towards us?" He asked already unsheathing his knife and handing it to him. "I want you to go kill it." Keith's grey eyes bored into Lance's confused blue ones. He wanted to see if Lance was capable of using a knife, and not a gun. "I'll be right behind you if things go wrong." He assured. 

     "Uh..." Lance looked down at the knife that was now in his hands, and then looked at Keith, unsure. "I don't know if I can.. I've never done this before."

     "You'll be fine, Lance."

     Lance looked over at the zombie that was approaching them slowly. Lance would rather use a gun, or anything that didn't require him to actually be close to a zombie to kill it. But he trusted that Keith would save him again like he did in the gas station, if anything went wrong.

     Lance bit his lip and turned his head away from the zombie to look at Keith. "You promise I'll be okay?" 

     Keith nodded, "I've got your back if something happens," he assured again, and looked at the slowly shuffling zombie. "You really can't rely on guns, Lance. They make way too much noise. If we ever get separated, you need to know how to save yourself." He explained. "Plus, it looks like this one is a slower one, so you'll be fine." 

     "Okay.." Lance looked back at the zombie and took a deep breath, trying to swallow all his fears. He took a few shaky steps towards the zombie. He could sense Keith right behind him as he approached the zombie. He couldn't even tell if the zombie was male or female, because of how bad their face was messed up. Blood stained clothes and face, rotting grey skin, sharp crooked teeth, sunken eyes, and that _awful_ smell. 

     There was only a few feet between him and the zombie, and then Lance began to freeze up. _What if it bit him? What if it survives after stabbing it? What if?_ Lance couldn't do it. He didn't want to do it. The zombie growled and grabbed Lance's shoulders. He didn't realize how close the zombie had gotten. 

     Keith nearly panicked as he watched this happen, and he moved quickly to step in to save Lance.

     Lance freaked out before Keith could step in, and pushed the zombie away with one hand, using the other hand to sink Keith's knife into the zombie's head. It fell to the ground, not moving, with the knife still stuck in it's skull. Lance was panting and shaking like a leaf. 

     Keith breathed a sigh of relief as Lance was able to kill it. He gently put his hand on Lance's shoulder. "Wow, you had me worried for a second there, you did good. Although you can't freeze up like that." He smiled slightly.

     Lance beamed. The touch gave him this weird feeling of happiness. He had actually been able to kill a zombie, and Keith congratulated him for it. He knew he had to work on not getting so frightened, but for now he didn't want to worry about that. "But I actually did it all by myself!" Lance felt proud. 

     He watched Keith pull the knife out of the zombie's head, seeing dark red blood ooze out of the wound. It made him feel like gagging, so he frowned and turned away. He sighed. "Well, uh, I guess we should keep going.."  

     Keith frowned slightly. "Yeah we should probably hurry too, we need to get there when it's still daylight so that we can barricade the place enough to feel somewhat safe." He said while wiping the dark blood off on the dead undead's shirt and sheathing it back in his holster.  

     "Okay, then let's go. I think if we keep walking for like an hour-ish, we should be able to get there." Lance explained. "There wasn't that many houses, but they were all pretty big and spread out. So I think maybe we should check out one of the houses for the night, and then leave the rest for tomorrow." He suggested.

     "That's actually not that bad of an idea." Keith commented.

     "What do you mean _actually_?" Lance furrowed his brows and crossed his arms, looking at Keith with an annoyed expression.

     "Heh, it's way too easy to get you riled up. I think I might have beat a new record."

     "Hey! Shut up!"

     "Make me." He teased with a smirk.

     Lance just grumbled and looked away. "You're such an ass.."

     Keith chuckled, and began walking. Lance reluctantly followed him.

     "So... I'm really hoping there's lots of food in the house." Lance couldn't stay mad at Keith for long. "And hopefully a comfortable bed." He was getting really excited to get there and just take a nap. 

     Keith nodded in agreement. "Yeah, sleep would be nice, although we'll probably have to take turns sleeping throughout the night as a safety precaution."

     "Yeah, that's true.."

     "I'll take first watch. You look awful. Like you haven't slept in days." 

     "Wow, _thanks_. That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

     Keith hoped that the houses were secure enough so they wouldn't have to take watch, and find reasonable food to eat, since Keith was starving, literally. 

  "Thanks for taking first watch, I guess." Lance smiled slightly. He was really starting to like Keith. He seemed really nice, considering he pretty much saved him back at the gas station. Though conversation wise, it seemed like the two were battling each other to see how many subtle insults they could throw at each other, and Lance was losing big time. 

 

     Things were silent between them for the first five minutes or so, before Lance spoke. "So, uh, did you have anyone else with you when this started? Any family?" Lance asked, trying to start up a conversation as they walked.

     Keith's expression darkened slightly and he shook his head. "No, no family. Though I knew someone named Shiro, but I don't know where he is anymore. He was the closest thing I had to a father, or an older brother. I mean, I guess I'm a _little_ worried about him." he shrugged, though he knew he was little more than just slightly worried. "What about you? Have any family you're looking for?"

     Lance nodded his head, looking down at his feet as they walked. "Mmhm. I've got a really large family. My guess is that they headed to the city when this all started."  
       
     "Well why weren't you with them when this all started?"  
     
     "I was over at my buddy Hunk's place on the night it happened. When we heard on the news, Hunk and I thought it was fake, but I still couldn't help but feel worried for my family. So I went back home, but when I got there, everyone was gone, and a lot of things were gone. Like, there were drawers open in the bedrooms, and they barely had clothes in it, and the fridge was cleaned out of food. So I was going to go back to Hunk's house, because he was home with his parents last I had been there. I seen my neighbor, Ms. Brown, and went to go talk to her, and maybe ask her if she had seen my parents..."

     "So then what?" Keith asked, getting a little impatient with the pause he did.

     "Well, she tried to eat me. Turns out that she became one of those monsters."

     "Ah.. _shit_.."

     "Well don't worry, I'm not bit or anything, obviously. It was actually quite scary at the time though, because I had no clue what was going on." Lance looked forward at the road ahead. "I'm determined to find my family. They've gotta be alive. I refuse to think otherwise."

     "Wow, you seem really...confident." Keith commented. Honestly, Keith thought that there was a severely low chance that Lance's family could be alive. But he didn't want to tell him that they weren't. He didn't want to make him more depressed than he seemed. "It's possible that they could have headed to the nearest hospital, or church, for support and to regroup with other families." Keith tried to give Lance a hopeful smile. Though he frowned slightly knowing that once Lance found his family, he would leave him, and Keith would be on his own again. It was nice to have Lance's company, since talking to him distracted him from his in-caving stomach. 

     "Yeah, most likely. I was stupid and didn't think to go there though.." He frowned. 

     Lance began kicking a small pebble that was on the road as they walked. He looked over at Keith. "Oh, hey, are you hungry at all? I think I have one more candy bar in my bag if you want it. I gotta repay you somehow for saving me." Lance didn't even wait for Keith's answer, and began pulling his bag off his back and began rummaging through it.

     "Oh no, you don't have to do that, you'll probably need it if we don't find food at the houses.." He told him. "I am half considering eating my shoe though." He said with a slightly laugh to make light of the situation when he felt sick from the lack of food. 

     "Oh come on, Keith. You're probably starving. I can hear your stomach rumbling." Lance pulled the candy bar out of his bag, and then put his bag back on. He held the candy bar out for Keith to take. "C'mon, just take it. I'm not that hungry anyways." Lance lied. He was starving, but he knew Keith probably wanted it more than him. 

     Keith felt a little guilty taking his food but he was practically drooling over it. "Thanks.." He said, while taking the candy bar and unwrapping it. Sadly it wasn't a lot, and eating just made him hungrier, but it was better than nothing. "Do you think this will ever end?" He asked. "Or at least get under control?"

     "I don't know," Lance answered honestly, "I like to hope that it's going to end, or at least get under control, but I really don't know.. this could possibly be the end of the world." He frowned, shoving his hands in his pockets, looking down. He gave an upset sigh. "I really hope that help will come for us. Then I can find my family, and everything will be okay." Lance then turned his head to Keith. "And of course, you can come with me, and I'll help you find that Shiro guy you were talking about." He gave Keith a hopeful smile. 

     Keith almost felt like crying, since this was the first time someone had been so nice to him in awhile. Though, he wasn't going to cry in front of Lance over a silly little thing. He almost never cried. Especially not in front of other people. "Thanks, I'll stick to you then and we won't have to face this alone." He said to assure Lance that he wouldn't ditch him for no reason. Nobody could get through something like this on their own. Even Keith had struggled to get this far. "Maybe one of the houses has a generator and we could have running water." He said, trying to think of something positive. 

     Lance smiled. He was so glad he had found Keith. Keith was great company and also a good fighter. Lance knew he could rely on him. It had only really been a few hours since Lance had met Keith, but he already trusted him completely. 

     Lance looked up at the road ahead, seeing the roof of a house peeking out from behind a small forest of trees. "Keith, we made it!" Lance grabbed onto him in excitement, and beams at him. Lance lets go and starts running full speed towards the house. His sneakers crunching dirt and rocks underneath them as he ran down the road, and headed for the forest.     

      "Lance wait!" He called out. Keith had learned the hard way that zombies would hide by the trees, and come out and grab you if you weren't careful enough. Keith ran, trying to keep up with Lance, but with his practically empty stomach he felt nauseous and his vision started to spin, making him have to stop and lean on a tree for a moment. "Wait..!" He panted.

     Lance sprinted through the trees. "Come on, Keith! We're almost th- .... _huh_?" Lance stopped running, and looked behind him, but Keith was nowhere in sight. ' _Where the hell did he go..?'_  Lance was panting, and squinted as he looked through the trees to try and spot Keith. _'I must've ran too fast..'_ He thought. Lance started walking back the way he came, in hopes of meeting back up with Keith. 

     Out of nowhere, a zombie come out from behind a tree a few feet away from Lance, catching him off guard. 

     " _Uwah_!!" He stumbles backwards out of surprise, but doesn't panic. He jogs away from the zombie. As he ran through the wooded area, more and more zombies kept showing up, and that was when Lance started to run faster, and panic.

     "Keith!!" Lance cried out. Another zombie walks out from behind a tree, grabbing Lance's arm. " _Aah_!!" He screams. The zombie grabs his arm, and out of pure panic, he falls over, sending the zombie down with him. He quickly attempts to wrestle the zombie off of him. 

     Keith heard Lance's cry for help and smelled the stench of the undead, and knew he had to get to Lance before something happened to him. 

     He let go of the tree and started running again, but this time he didn't stop when he got nauseated from the lack of food. He kept running. He didn't want to be alone again. Just having Lance around made things seem less depressing then they were. "Lance, where are you?!" He yelled. He had to jump back as a zombie reached out for him, and his eyes widened at how many zombies there actually were in this area. 

     He drew his knife out, but even he couldn't take out this many on his own. He stabbed the one next to him, and paled even more than what he actually was, when he saw the one on top of Lance, and two others about to follow. He runs over to him, dodging all the zombies reaching out for him.  "Lance, close your eyes!" He ordered.

     Lance didn't need to be told twice. He shut his eyes tightly, even though he didn't know what Keith was going to do. 

     Keith sunk his blade into the back of the zombie's skull, black blood seeping over, and landing on Lance's cheek. Keith shoved the zombie off of him and pulled Lance up. "Run Lance! Don't stop! Just _run_!" He yelled, and started pushing Lance towards the house. 

     The smell of the blood on his face smelled so bad, he wanted to puke. He ran as fast as he could like Keith told him to do, dodging every zombie that tried to grab him until he was out of the woods. He looked back, waiting for Keith. 

     Keith ran behind Lance and took a little longer to get there, but did catch up after a bit. "Quick! Inside before they follow!" He ran ahead of Lance, hurrying up the porch steps, and opened the conveniently unlocked front door. He ran inside and waited for Lance to follow. 

     Lance quickly ran inside before Keith shut the door. He leaned his back against the wall. He was tired, hungry, filthy, sweaty, and out of breath. He tried to calm his breathing, and tried to get his legs to stop shaking. Lance wiped the nasty dark blood off of his face and then wiped it on his jeans. He was trying so hard to fight the urge to cry.

     Keith shut the door behind Lance, locking it. "Stay close, and don't go into any rooms with closed doors without a weapon, or without me. There could be a zombie in there." He warned, leaning against the wall next to Lance to catch his breath.

     Lance looked at Keith. "I can't believe you saved me again." Lance tried to give him a nice smile, but with all his other emotions about what happened, it made the smile come out a little weird.

     "It's not your fault. You didn't have a short range weapon, and even with a short range weapon, the surprise attack that thing gave you would put anyone in the same situation." He said, trying to assure Lance that he wasn't mad at him for freezing up again. He put a hand on his shoulder. "Lets check the kitchen for food. I'm starving." Keith let go of him, and headed for the kitchen. 

     "Yeah.." He smiled. This was the second time Keith had touched Lance's shoulder. Lance didn't know why he liked it so much. Whenever Keith touched him, his face would flush and he would feel like he had butterflies in his stomach.

     Lance headed to the kitchen with Keith. The place looked untouched, like no one had even been in here. Lance noticed bread on the counter, but it was stale and starting to mold. " _Yuck_.." Lance left it there, and started rummaging through the cupboards.

     Keith rummaged around the kitchen as well, and ended up opening up all the cabinets. A lot of the things had spoiled but he found things like rice, flour in one of the cabinets and he opened the pantry to find an entire shelf of canned food. He stood there baffled for a moment and then reached in and grabbed one of the cans to make sure he wasn't just seeing things. "Lance..." He mumbled to get his attention and show him what he had found. "You might wanna get over here.."

     "Yeah?" Lance turned his head to Keith as he was going through a drawer, which didn't have anything special in it. He closed it and walked over to where Keith was. He was curious to see what he had found. Lance looked inside the pantry, seeing all of the canned foods. "Oh my god! Holy shit...there's so much food!" Lance couldn't believe his eyes. "Finally, we won't starve anymore!" 

     "It's only a shelf full. We have to be careful not to eat it all so quickly." He stated before he handed a can to Lance, and got one out for himself. He opened the drawers until he found a can opener. Normally, Keith would have waited to warm it up, but he didn't care if it was cold or not at the moment, it was food, and that's all that mattered. Keith opened his and then gave Lance the can opener before he dug into the can of black beans he had. 

     Lance nodded as he took the can opener from Keith. "Yeah, I know, I know. We can't eat it all in one sitting." Lance sat himself up on the counter top, and opened up the can of peaches Keith had handed to him and began to eat. Lance used his fingers to get the peaches out, instead of grabbing a spoon that they had in the kitchen like a normal person would. Lance was so grateful that whoever had lived here before had left all of their food. 

     When he had finished his food, he was still hungry. He wanted more, but he knew that he shouldn't. They needed to save the rest. Lance set the empty can aside on the counter. 

     Keith finished his rather quickly as well, and looked at the empty can for a minute, since he was still really hungry. He sighed slightly as he leaned against the counter, then in curiosity, he checked to see if the water worked and frowned slightly when it didn't. He felt disgusted at himself for all the sweat, dirt, and blood that had been on him for days now. He knew he probably looked as bad as he smelled. "I'm going to see if I can find something else to change into." He said and walked up the staircase.           

     "Wait a sec, I'm gonna come with you." Lance hopped off the counter and followed him to the stairs. "I need to change too, and also, you don't know if there's a zombie up there, so it could be dangerous to go alone, right?" Lance followed Keith up to the top of the stairs. 

     Keith nodded in agreement. "We should find you a knife as well so you can defend yourself easier." He said while walking up the staircase to a hallway with three doors. Two on the right and one door and the left. All three of them were closed. "Well, pick your poison I suppose." Keith shrugged and went to the door on the left. 

     Lance watched Keith go towards the door on the left, so he picked the first door on the right. He quietly turned the knob and opened the door cautiously. He peeked inside. It was a small bathroom. He walked inside, the door creaking a bit as he open the door fully. He checked behind the shower curtain, just to be sure there was no zombies hiding out in there. "This room's clear." Lance said as he left the bathroom. 

     He decided to check the other door on the right while Keith was still busy checking out the left side. He did the same as he did with the other room. He quietly turned the knob, trying to listen for any groaning zombie noises. He didn't hear anything. He opened the door fully. It was a bedroom, and it looked like it had been used recently. 

     " _Weird_.." He said to himself. 

     He was just about to tell Keith to come in the room and check it out, but before he could even turn around, someone whacked him from behind with a crowbar. 


	3. Chapter 3

_Day 34 - Evening_   
_Things are going great so far! Though Keith and I got surrounded by zombies not that long ago, we managed to find a nice, sturdy place to possibly stay the night. Maybe even multiple nights. There's beds, and enough food to last us months! But though it seems like a dream come true, we didn't think that there was someone living here..._

     "You picked the wrong person to mess with!" A familiar voice said. Lance heard them jump down from the bed. The person must've been short, because they needed to be on the bed to actually hit him.

     Lance groaned in pain on the floor, feeling dizzy. He looked up at them, his vision finally going back to normal, they were holding their crowbar like a baseball bat, ready to hit Lance again if he moved. Lance's eyes widened as he immediately recognized them. 

     "Wait! Pidge! It's me, Lance!"  

     She lowered her weapon. "Lance..? What the hell are you doing here?!"

     Lance got up slowly, using the dresser to pull himself to his feet. He groaned. "Ngh...did you really have to hit me that hard!?"

     Pidge dropped her weapon. "Sorry! I didn't know it was you! I thought you were someone here to kill me or something!" She apologized.

     Keith heard Lance talking to someone else in the other room, and was a little confused. He left the current room he was in to go see what Lance had gotten himself into this time. 

     He entered the bedroom doorway, and was confused to see a small girl, with short fluffy hair. Lance didn't look like he was in trouble. Lance was even smiling. Keith walked over to meet Lance's friend.

     Lance smiled, and scooped her into a hug, lifting her off the ground. Pidge hugged back, giggling.

     "Did I come in at a bad time, or..?" Keith butted in awkwardly.

     Pidge quickly turned her head to Keith in surprise, and Lance let go of her. Pidge was surprised that Lance had someone else with him. "Who's he?" She asked.

     "I'm Keith, and I'm guessing you're Lance's friend?" 

     Lance nodded. "We went to school together. Not exactly friends, but we've talked to each other more than once before this."

      "Acquaintances." Pidge summed it up for Lance.

     "Yes, that's the word." He chuckled. "Oh, and Pidge, we may or may not have taken some of your food."

     "That's fine. I got lots of food. I even have more stashed away somewhere else, so don't worry about it." She crossed her arms and looked at both of them. " _Jesus Christ_ , how long have you guys been wearing those outfits?! Here," Pidge walked over to a dresser, and pulled out one of the drawers, "there's a whole bunch of clean clothes in here that should fit you. So take whatever." She went and sat down on the bed. 

     Keith felt a little out of place, since he didn't personally know Pidge like Lance apparently did, but she seemed nice enough. He walked over to the drawers and chose a red shirt, jeans, and even clean boxers to change into. "How are you doing on water?" He asked Pidge since she didn't seem dehydrated.

     Pidge looked at Keith. "Water? Well, the tap water in the house doesn't work, but there is a well out back that I've been using. I also have a bunch of water bottles filled if you need one." Pidge grabbed a plastic water bottle off of the nightstand and tossed it around in her hands.       

     Lance grabbed a white t-shirt and a dark blue sweater to go over top of it, jeans, and clean underwear out of the drawer. He looked at her. "So have you been all alone since this all started?" Lance couldn't imagine Pidge being able to survive this all by herself. With her height, he also couldn't imagine her being able to kill a zombie. Pidge nodded and grinned. "Mmhm. It's been like..maybe like a month that I've been on my own."

     Keith looked around, and felt that something wasn't right. "What about your parents? Or siblings? Where are they? Are they just out for a bit....or have they just vanished like everyone else seems too have?" He asked, since she looked way too young to be on her own.

     "Oh. I...don't know where they are. They just pretty much..vanished." Pidge frowned. "I'm really hoping they'll come back though. That's why I've been hiding out here in my house."

     Keith nodded and in response since it was a little hard for him to sympathize since he never really knew what it was like to lose a family. The closest thing he had to that was Shiro.

     "Wait, this is _your_ house?" Lance, for some reason, seemed surprised.

     "Yup. I've been waiting here for my family ever since the apocalypse started," she explained. "My dad has always believed that something like this would happen, and he had been stacking up on canned food for, like, forever.

     "Well your food will run out much quicker now that there is more people here, so we will have to find a better way to acquire food...preferably safely." Keith crossed his arms. "We'll also probably have to get rid of the mass of zombies in the woods, since it's dangerous to have so many close to here. And we'll have to make a barrier of some sort around the well so the zombies don't find a way into it and contaminate it." 

     "Wait, what zombies in the woods?" Pidge raised her eyebrow. "Oh, please don't tell me you led a huge herd of zombies to the house.." She got off the bed to look through the window. There were at least thirty zombies on the front lawn and there were more coming out of the woods. "Are you _fucking_ kidding?!" Pidge quickly shut the blinds. "We're probably going to be trapped in here for at least three days with all the zombies out there." Pidge crossed her arms and let out a frustrating sigh. She glared at the boys. She was glad they came, but now there was no way to get out of here if they ever needed to. "I like your idea of barricading the well so that the zombies don't contaminate it, but you're also suggesting we go and kill all those zombies out there by ourselves? Theres like _forty_ of them! I dunno about you guys, but I only have a crowbar, which really isn't going to do much." 

     "We aren't going to just go running out there, Lance has a gun." Keith realized that a gun might just attract more of them. " _Shit, nevermind_...that'll just bring more of them over here." He thought for another moment. "Wait, they're attracted to noise and light, right? Maybe we could make them leave... if I go far enough away, I could find a car and light its gas tank on fire. They'll be attracted to the explosion! I would just have to somehow get back here without being caught by them." The idea made sense in his head. Maybe this could work.    

     "Huh. That's actually not a bad idea." Pidge was pretty impressed.

     Lance looked at Keith, his eyebrows knitted together in worry. "Are you sure its okay to do that on your own? I mean, remember how many of them there were when we first got here?" Lance frowned. He didnt want Keith to be going and doing anything on his own. It was dangerous out there. He didn't want to lose him. 

     "Yeah I'll be fine. Plus, if we don't get them away soon, we risk them getting to our only water source," he said while out of the window at the gathered undead. "Once the explosion goes off and they start leaving, I need you two to start making a fence or some kind of barrier around the well so they can't reach it. Once we have this done, we can have a little time to relax for a few days, then we'll have to start thinking of ways on how to acquire food... actually...if you make the fence large enough, we can make a garden and go off from there." 

     "Wait, so we're doing this now?" Lance asked. "Its starting to get dark, so it's not going to be that safe." He warned Keith.

     Pidge looked at Lance. "Lance, I'm sure Keith will be fine. Keith is really the only person who can do this anyways, since he actually has a proper weapon and he knows what he's doing." Pidge then turned her head to Keith. "I think we have a bunch of wood planks out in the backyard that we could use for a fence." 

     "If you have flashlights don't use them until you know for sure that the zombies are far enough away not to notice them. It could bring them all back." He instructed her.

     Then turning to Lance, he frowned. "Lance, I have to do this tonight, with all the zombies here at the moment they are a risk to the water supply now," he told him. "If I think it's getting to dangerous for me after the car blows up, I'll run back to the gas station and house there for the night. So don't wait up for me if I don't show up."

     "What!? Keith, you can't stay the night there!" Lance protested. "The windows are shattered, and the door is barely on it's hinges. There's nothing preventing zombies from getting in!" Lance was practically shouting.

     Pidge butted in. "Lance! He'll be fine. Just don't worry about him." Pidge would have put her hand on his shoulder in reassurance, but she could barely reach his shoulder, so she didn't.  

     "I'll be okay. If I don't do this, we could all end up dying. I'm also the only one who can do this. You both have families that will miss you if you die. If I die no one will even notice..." he stopped for a moment and frowned slightly as that thought stung a bit.

     Lance frowned. He wanted to tell Keith that he would miss him if he died, and wanted to say that he cares for him, but he decided not to say anything.

     "I can handle myself." Keith assured Lance. "No promises that I'll make it back tonight, but I'll try," he stated and strapped his knife to his thigh. Turning to Pidge, he asked, "do you have matches?" 

     Pidge nodded "Uh huh. Downstairs in the kitchen. I'll go grab them, be right back." Pidge left the room quickly. 

     Keith put his foot on the bed so he could tie his laces easier. He didn't want them coming undone while he was running to the car, or running back to the house. "Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone," he teased Lance a little to try and lighten the atmosphere a bit.

      "No promises with that," he laughed a little, "I might need you to come and save me again."

     "Yes, and I'll make it back as quickly as possible to save your ass. I promise."

     Lance's smile then turned into a small frown. "You're sure you'll make it back?" He couldn't help but think ' _what if Keith doesn't come back?_ ' He was determined that this plan would work, but he worried about Keith dying in the process. 

     Keith hesitated before he responded, "Yeah- yeah, I'll be fine, I'll make it back without a scratch." He had many doubts about actually making it back, but he didn't want Lance to worry anymore than he already was. "I'm going to head downstairs and check on Pidge, I need to leave as soon as I can."

     "Okay, I'll be down soon as well." Lance smiled at Keith as he left the room. Once Lance had heard him go down the stairs, his smile faded. Keith had probably tried to cheer him up so that he wouldn't worry. Lance sighed, and sat down on the bed.

\----->\--->->\---<-<\---<\-----

     When Keith had gotten downstairs, Pidge was in the kitchen, standing on a chair, rummaging through a cabinet above the fridge. Even while standing on the chair, she had to be on her toes to reach. She finally pulled a box of matches from the cabinet. "Aha! I finally found them!" She closed the cabinet door and jumped down from the chair, handing Keith the matches when he walked into the kitchen.

     "Thanks, I'll need you to shut the door right away once I run out, so the zombies won't get into the house." he instructed her. He took the box of matches out of her hand and stuffed them in his backpack. "I'll try to be back as soon as I can." He zipped his bag up and headed towards the door. "It'll take me maybe 30 minutes to get there if I keep a steady run, so once you guys finish the fence, you should watch for me out the window. It won't takd me long to run back." Keith unlocked the latch on the door and got ready to run outside. 

     Pidge stood by the door next to Keith. "Okay, goodbye and good luck." She gave him a small smile.

     Lance came down the stairs and stood next to Pidge just as Keith was about to leave. "Hey, be careful, okay?" Lance told him. He had a small frown on his face, but he tried to look happy. He knew Keith had to do this, otherwise they'd die of dehydration, but Lance didn't want him to go alone. He was scared something was going to happen to him. ' _Keith can do fine on his own. I shouldn't be worrying about him._ ' Lance thought. 

     Keith smiled at Lance. He thought it was nice that someone seemed to worry about him, and that made him even more determined to get back. "I will, don't worry to much, okay?"

     Lance nodded. "Okay.." 

     "Well, see you soon guys." He opened the door, and started jogging down the steps.

      Pidge closed the door immediately after he was gone. "Well...now we wait."

\----->\--->->\---<-<\---<\-----

     Now that Keith had food in his stomach, running came easier, even if he was exhausted. He pushed past the drooling undead and stayed on the road so he wouldn't get lost in the woods. It took him longer than he expected to find a car on the road.

     A zombie sat in the driver's seat of the vehicle. Keith walked around and opened the gas tank. He knew that if he dropped the match into it, it would blow up on him so he took an extra hour to run to the gas station and filled an empty liter bottle with gasoline. He carried it back. By the time he had gotten back to the car, the sun was setting. He wondered if Lance was worried about him.

     He made a trail of gasoline leading towards the car and into the gas tank. He lit the match and looked quickly around for a place to hide behind, but all he could find was the narrow trees. ' _Screw it,_ ' he thought, and dropped the match.

     He ran as quickly as he could, but the flames had already reached the gas tank and the car blew up with an earth shaking noise. The wave of air pressure pushed Keith into a tree and a shard of metal from the car shot into his lower back, piercing through his flesh. He let out a loud wail of pain and agony as it began to drive itself deeper when Keith tried to move. Tears formed in his eyes, but he tried not to let them fall. He looked back at the car, spinting at the bright light of the fire. There was no way Lance and Pidge wouldn't be able to see that huge fire from the house. Keith slowly stood. "I need to get out of here.."

\----->\--->->\---<-<\---<\-----

     Lance and Pidge were watching and waiting silently by the window for an explosion. It had been around thirty minutes, so they weren't too worried yet. Just then, Pidge hears a huge explosion in the distance and could see a flash of light past the woods. "He did it!" she exclaimed.

     The zombies that were walking around outside all turned their heads in the direction of the explosion and began walking towards it. Once all of them had left the yard, Lance and Pidge left the house so that they could start on the fence.

     They started grabbing the wood planks that sat outside in a pile and started building a tall fence around it. No zombies had shown up to interrupt them, so they were able to get it done in about fifteen minutes. Lance squinted, looking through the trees to see if Keith had gotten back yet. He didn't see him.

     "Hey, do you think Keith would be back by now?" Lance was a bit concerned.

     "Just give him a few minutes. He'll be back." Pidge responded as she pounded a nail into the wood with a hammer. " _And_...I think we're done!" They both stood back a bit to look at their horrible fence. "Well...it doesn't have to be perfect.." Pidge mumbles.

     Lance looked at her. "I think we should get back inside now and wait for Keith." Pidge nodded. "... ' _Well_ ,' ' _water_ ' we waiting for?" Pidge chuckled a bit at her double pun. Lance laughed as well.

     "Nice one."

     They both headed back inside to wait for Keith. 

\----->\--->->\---<-<\---<\-----

     Keith considered pulling the metal out, but decided not to. Doing so would increase the blood flow, and he'd have a higher chance of bleeding out before he got back to the house. He had nothing else to stop the blood at the moment, so he'd have to hurry back to the others. He hoped they knew how to handle a situation like this.

     Keith had to hunch in his walk. Standing straight made the pain nearly unbearable, but he knew he needed to get back. He couldn't risk staying at the gas station now, because there was no way he could defend himself at the moment, and also because of his wound. He forced himself to pick up his pace, but he could barely even walk. To avoid running into the zombies, he walked in the ditch on the other side of the road. Eventually, the mass of zombies came into view. Thankfully, they were too distacted on the flaming fire from the car to even notice Keith. Keith slowly limped in the direction of the house.

\----->\--->->\---<-<\---<\-----

     It had been an hour and a half since Lance and Pidge finished the fence. Lance was panicking about how Keith still wasn't here. Pidge was trying to calm him down.

     "Pidge! Keith still hasn't come back yet! What if he's dead right now?! I need to go out there!" Lance rushed to the door.

     Pidge ran after him, blocking the door just before Lance was about to open it. "Lance! Do you want to die?! You aren't going out there by yourself with just your gun. I'm sure Keith's fine! He's probably just staying the night at the gas station because there were too many zombies!"

     Lance kept trying to push her away from the door, but she wouldn't budge.

     They both stopped when they heard the sound of a weak knock on the door.

     Pidge immediately moved away from the door so they could open it. Lance was the one to grab the doorknob and open the door, seeing Keith lying on the porch, bleeding. 


End file.
